Dalal

Written by Lahcen Qasserras

Clad in a long and patched jallaba with frayed cuffs, Alhaj Arabi was reciting his Moghreb prayers. The lower part of his jallaba was swaying in a light breeze. Broad-shouldered and erect, he stood reciting the Holy Koran. His melodious voice echoed in the corners of the room, the furniture of which was restricted to a blue stripped wool carpet and a square table set in the middle. A picture of Holy Mecca and another of Al-Qods Mosque were hung on the walls, facing each other.

Although he was in his mid-sixties, he had no wrinkles. His face was as radiant as the moon. His cheeks were glowing with purity. Some tiny drops of water on his forehead were sparkling like diamonds.  

While Alhaj  Arabi was deeply immersed in his spiritual worship and looked detached from space and time, his wife Alhaja Amina, her hands together on her lap, was sitting cross-legged behind him, waiting for him to finish his prayer. She was leaning on the white-painted wall. She was a thin woman with a sallow complexion. Her

deep-set eyes and hollow cheeks were a testimony of the ravages of time and hard circumstances. There was an air of poverty around her, especially with that worn-out black scarf around her head. Her cracked lips were busy rehearsing what she was going to say to her husband, Alhaj Arabi.

"Please God, forgive our sins and guide us to the right path. Please God, the Merciful, take your wrath away from our home," said Alhaj Arabi, kneeling on the ground. From time to time, Alhaja Amina raised her eyes to consult the round clock on the wall and then looked at the door. Nobody was there.

"Assalamo Alaykom," said Alhaj Arabi, bringing his prayer to an end. Alhaja Amina got to her feet and, leaning on her stick, stooped towards her husband. She looked like a woman carrying mountains. She got herself seated next to him while he was rolling the beads with his fingers and glorifying Allah. Alhaja Amina gave a fake cough to draw his attention to her presence but he did not stir and only looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"May Allah accept your prayer, Alhaj," said Alhaja Amina.

"Incha Allah," replied Alhaj Arabi, still maintaining that stern look, which neither age nor anything else could soften. Alhaja Amina kept silent for a moment studying her husband's rugged countenance and then took a deep breath. She cleared her throat as if her words were stuck there.

"What… what did you say, Alhaj," said Alhaja Amina with a low voice almost unheard.

"About what?" said Alhaj Arabi.

"About the matter of our daughter Dalal."

"Where is she first?"

"She is in…" Alhaja Amina started and then stopped.

"Where?" Alhaj turned to her and fixed her with a look that sent a shiver through her body.

"In the internet café."

"Didn't I tell you never  to let her go there again," said Alhaj Arabi in a roar, "Can't you see it is the source of the problems on my head?" He got to his feet to put the beads on the table on his right. "At the end of my life I'll have to see with my naked eyes my only daughter chatting with a pig from France," he said while Alhaja Amina was following him with slow steps.

"I have no authority in this house then," he said with a frown. If Alhaja Amina hated anything, it was that frown. "She said that he was coming to Morocco to marry her."

"I'm the one who says and not she."

"But he will marry her."

"Stop your nonsense," he said, "As long as I'm alive, this marriage will never take place and if she marries him I will dispossess her."

"But why?"

"I've told you a thousand times my daughter will not marry a non-Muslim man."

"But…" she started.

"There is no but."
"Just listen, Alhaj," she pleaded him, "She told him to embrace Islam if he wants to marry her and he has accepted."

"To embrace Islam just to marry her and then turn back to what he was."

"Alhaj, you have to accept their marriage; Jack is a rich man and he will take her to live with him in France."

"France!" he said with a sardonic smile, "Oh, Allah, how long have I to put up with the fancies of this woman?"

"Alhaj, you have to see things from a different view," she said

"And what is that different view of yours?"

"If she marries him and moves to France she will have a happy life and help us, too"

"Help us, too!" said he, "Have I ever told you I am in need of anybody's help?"

"I…"
"Can't you see the disgrace her marriage to that Jack of hers will bring to me?"

"Why should we care about other people? 

"I just can't imagine a man with a name of Jack stepping into my house and then you come and ask me to give him my only daughter for marriage."

"There is no shame in that," said Alhaja Amina.

"Now, shut up," he threatened her, "Dalal will only marry one person and that person is her cousin Ahmed,"

"Ahmed? But we've already talked about that, Alhaj," she said, "Ahmed is still a university student and can't afford marriage,"

"It's Allah who gives and nobody else," he explained to her, "if he is jobless today, tomorrow he will find a job and build a house. Look to us, for example, when I married you I had nothing at all; but, thanks Allah, thing are good now,"

"Yes, sure," she said, with a trace of sarcasm in her voice, as she rolled her eyes at the roof and at the carpet and then at the table.

While they were arguing, Dalal entered the house silently and went on her tiptoes, trying to evade her father's attention. She was sneaking like a snake in the grass. She opened her handbag and took her handkerchief to clean the makeup off her face. Dalal, in her mid-twenties, was bursting with beauty and youth. Not only was she  scantly clad but her breasts were half naked and her short skirt displayed her attractive thighs. She was the kind of girl any man would like. As she was about to pass the room where her parents were, her high-heels failed her as she stumbled on the uneven floor. She drew her father's attention. He came swiftly to check. Before he could get to her, she had already taken a jallaba and a scarf from her handbag and put them on to cover her head and naked body. As Alhaj Arabi walked towards Dalal, her mother , motioned to her from behind her husband's back to keep quiet.

"Where have you been?" he asked Dalal. She did not reply as her mother told her.

"Didn't I tell you not to go and talk to that Jack of yours?"

"But he will marry me Dad and he said he loved me,"

"Listen to her," he turned to Alhaja Amina, "She is talking about love! Can't you see what your softness led us to?"

"These are the girls of today," said Alhaja Amina.

"Yes, give more lectures again," said he, "Oh, Allah, I regretted the day I saw this creature you gave me,"

"May Allah forgive you, Alhaj?"
"Get your face out of here and wait for me till I come back," he turned to his daughter. Then he put his hands behinds his back and went swiftly towards the door.

"Where, Alhaj?"

"To see Ahmed and put an end to this," he said as he resumed his walk without looking back at them. Alhaja Amina and her daughter Dalal, raising their eyebrows, looked at each other in awe. 

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